Year 6 dive into our Local Estuary

 Year 6 started a new inquiry into our Local Tamaki Estuary. We explored what we already know,

our experiences and wonderings.

Izzy "Where salt water meets freshwater"

Eddie "Lots of birds and bugs and fish live there"

Anastasiia "There is lots of water" 

Emily "Where water meets  the land"

Christina "There are many species of animals there"

 

Check out the rest of our slides here

We read an online magazine and answered comprehension questions.

Next, we will look into why they are so important....

Year 5 Investigating the health our local waterways with Watercare

Today Year Five helped to test the health of the Wakaaranga Creek with Kathryn from Watercare.  We learnt about the common risks to our local waterways - detergent, nitrates, oil, plastic litter and paint.

Next we tested water samples from the creek for turbidity (clarity), PH, temperature and nitrate levels.

Lastly we used magnifying glasses to find macro invertebrates in the samples.  Who knew there were so many bugs living in the estuary?!

Good news! Our results when compared to December 2023 showed that our waterway is healthier than a year ago, as there were less nitrates present.  Sadly there is still lots of plastic litter present.  We'll think about actions we can take next year to address this when we take part in our Year 6 Estuary Inquiry.

Thank you to Kathryn and Watercare  for the wonderful hands on learning.

 

While others tested water we also went on a hunt for land invertebrates. We logged our finds on iNaturalist. 

Year Six Pop Up Estuary Exhibition

 Year Six are championing our unique estuary animals.  We want to get the word out about who is living in our estuary and how we can protect them. We decided to create fact posters and display them in pop up exhibition along the Rotary Walkway this weekend. Check out our mahi here Estuary Animal Inquiry Exhibition

Year Six Explore our Estuary Animals

 Back in December 2023 our Pestfree Cadets visited our local estuary and took dna samples to see what lives there.  Check out our field trip here - https://wakaenviro.blogspot.com/search?q=edna

The Wilderlab got back to us with the results: https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wilderlab.openwaters/reports/a5fbe79b5ac54637.html

We were very excited about the banded kokopu and short finned eel. We wanted to share what we've learnt  about the importance of estuaries and the endemic and native animals that live there.

After exploring the difference between endemic, native and introduced we broke into groups and adopted an estuary animal  from the testing and field trip observation to research and champion.

We have contacted the Wilderlab to see if they will donated some kits so we can repeating out testing.

Estuaries are Habitats

 Today Year Six explored how our local estuary offers lots of habitats for plants and animals.  We reviewed our prior knowledge with a fun Kahoot, before reading about different estuary habitats in depth.  Afterwards we created our own online mangrove habitat using this website:

Ethan "birds live in the estuaries"

"Mangrove grow in estuaries"

Tiaan "Mangrove forests are highly productive busy zones"

Ethan "There are tides in estuaries"

Olivia "Some fish spend important parts of their lives among mangroves"

"Wakaaranga Creek is a mangrove forest"

Holiday homework - visit the Wakaaranga Creek or Rotary Walkway.  

Year Six Estuary Inquiry

Year Six began an inquiry into estuaries today. 

What do we know about estuaries?

Ethan M-C "There are lots of mangroves"

Izzabella "Fish hide in mangroves from the birds"

Harvey "The mangroves act as a nursery for baby fish"

Jaden "A small body of water"

Hannah "Eels can live in estuaries"

Harrison "Sort of like a river"

We found out what an Estuary is and began to think about our local Tamaki Estuary.

What do we want to find out?

What type of estuary is the Tamaki Estuary?

What animals live there?

Can we eat shellfish from there?

Why are there mangroves there now?

Next time we're looking forward to finding out why estuaries are important in the past and in the future.  

In the meantime, for homework, we can visit the estuary and enter the estuary photo: competition: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aCjzqhyEgcIjnjbta_eo7o1ToVceqYJGS8E-y6zc2xg/edit?usp=sharing 

Our Estuary Monitoring Trip with Frazer, Cate & Kylee

More photos Estuary Trip 12/12/23

Today the Pestfree Cadets were lucky enough to visit the Wakaaranga Creek with Frazer, Cate and Kylee - experts from Sustainable Schools. We wanted to gather more information about what lives at our local estuary.

Here is a our survey data:

12/12/23

9:15am - 10:15am

Wakaaranga Creek by the Ropello Entrance

Cloudy & windy

Birds we observed:

pukeko

pied shag

tui

sparrow

swallow

white faced heron

black backed gull

seagull

blackbirds

duck

starling

piwakawaka

tern

Sadly no kingfishers, godwits or oyster catchers

Are pests, human activity or pets a factor?

We noticed what nature was telling us.

The mangroves were not there when the creek was used as the resting place of the canoe.  We wondered why they are there now.

The pohutukawas were in flower and the puriri were covered in berries.

We have taken a water sample so that it can be EDNA tested.  This will tell us what is living in our estuary. When creatures move through the environment they leave traces of their DNA. Scientists will analyse our sample and send us the results.  We can add that to our estuary inquiry.

This trip will help inform our inquiry and actions in 2024.

Thank you for an amazing trip Cate, Kylee, and Frazer.